It All Changed in '86

Monday, April 12, 2010, 12:00 am

"It became clear to me that in order to compete that we needed to make changes, and that changes meant paying money," BAA head Guy Morse tells the Boston Globe. Those changes--John Hancock's sponsorship, and prize money--arrived in Boston in 1986 and enticed the best marathoners in the world to its famous race. Rob de Castella and Ingrid Kristiansen set new course records in Boston that year and carried away $60,000 and $35,000 in prize money, respectively, plus a pair of new Mercedes Benzes. But for a couple years in the 1980s, Boston was in crisis. The world of marathoning was becoming professionalized and Boston was not. "We’ve been accused of being dinosaurs, of living in another age. I guess we’ll just have to be dinosaurs, then," said race director Will Cloney in 1980. That attitude came at the expense of recruiting the best runners. Alberto Salazar didn't return to Boston after winning in 1982. "I can’t see going to Boston and wasting my effort there," said Ron Tabb as he pulled out of the 1985 race. With prize money, the best returned. And pretty soon, the best were from Kenya. Ibrahim Hussein won in 1987. The rest is history.